What Goes Around... Always Comes Around

A true story i heard on a radio. A mother of four kids, all four kids with abnormality, realises that her kids were being punished for her past misdeeds.

Submitted: January 17, 2010

AAA
|
AAA

Icomment enabled

Submitted: January 17, 2010

AAA

AAA

Icomment on

A/N: I heard this story on the radio and it actually left a mark on me. I never felt so sad and so sorry for this girl who had used money to shame her friends. And after years passed,
she was given a taste of her own medicine. All of her four children she bore, all four were mentally disabled. She was so terribly upset and met an old man who told her that this was a retribution
for embarrassing her friends. The old man told her that life would be easier for her if only she apologised to her friends and they in turn forgave her. But none of friends wishes to see her again.
And I hope if any of her friends read this, I hope they could forgive for the things this girl had done to them.

Story had changed slightly*

What Goes Around... Always Comes Around

I lived in laps of luxury ever since I was a kid. Everything I desire, I could just get it. I just have to feast my eyes on something and I would get it in just that instance. It doesn’t
matter if it’s too expensive; I lived in a life where everything was affordable for me. To me, money is everything. I could get everything I desired just with money. I just have to show the amount
of wealth I possessed to people and I can get them as my friends and nobody, and I MEAN nobody, dared to mess with me because I have wealth that is beyond everyone’s dream.

But never once I thought that money would ever resulted in my downfall…and I finally realised that not necessarily money means everything and I could just own everything because of money…
Money can’t change my destiny.

During secondary school years, I had many friends and seven of them were the best friends I had ever had. They were really friends that I had never had. Bell, Mel, Gin, Kris, Julie, Anna
and Ruby, we had always been sort of the leaders among the kids in the school. We do what we please and we will get what we want just by bribing people with the wealth I possessed. No one dares to
mess with us and I was pleased to see people terrified at the sight of me whenever I walked past them. It made me feel that I am the object of immense envy to all. They wouldn’t dare to look at me
in the eye. If I knew anyone who dares to mess with me, I would just whipped out some big cash from my wallet and told my friends to embarrass them in the worst possible way they can to teach this
group of scum a lesson and make sure they wouldn’t dare to look a me in the eye again. It worked. It scared the butt of many kids in the school. No one dared to complain me to the teachers for fear
they would be the next victim.

And I think my friends feared me too because they had always listened to me and would never insult my views or suggestions. This was a comfort to me. I will never have the fear of getting
back-stabbed by any of my seven friends.

When the fourth year starts, things began to turn sour. Anna’s and Ruby’s friendship with me drifted apart. We began to argue over little things because we often disagree on the way I was
bullying the other kids in the school. They thought it wasn’t nice anymore to treat people like a scum and we ought to concentrate more on our upcoming O Levels on October. I glared at them. To
hell with O Levels! How dare they lecture me about the unkind things I had done to others? How dare they tell me off about bullying and tell me to concentrate on my O Levels instead? How dare they
speak to me like that? Didn’t they know, if it wasn’t because they were my friends, I would have kick and stamped them like a cockroach as I had done to the other kids? Their words had offended me;
it dealt dreadful blows to my pride. I was filled with the desire to take revenge on them, to teach them who they are and they shouldn’t mess around with me and I would make sure that Anna and Ruby
will be eternally embarrassed.

I resolved at once to draw up a plan with Bell, Mel, Gin, Kris and Julie. They had sympathised with me about what Anna and Ruby had said to me and offered their help. I was more than happy
to see that I had supporters. I had Bell and Mel in charge of spying on Anna and Ruby on what they were doing after school and Gin, Kris and Julie who were in the same class as Anna and Ruby to
keep an eye on the pair of them. I could have waited the next fifty years to find anything embarrassing about Anna and Ruby, yet it so happened they very next day after I had decided to take
revenge upon them, Bell and Mel came rushing over to my condominium home with photos on Anna and Ruby in a shabby old shop.

“What’s this rubbish?” I asked them harshly, throwing the photos back at them, glaring.

Bell and Mel looked stunned for a while before Bell gathered the photos back in her hands, an insane smile lit her features as she said, “Don’t you get it? Anna and Ruby are working in a
small shabby laundry shop! It means they are poor—not like us, they hadn’t got any money! And by the look of the shop, I am sure they have no choice but to work at this run-down shack to earn a
couple of dollars! And if,” then Bell dropped her voice so low that I had to lean in nearer to her so that I can catch her words, “they are working in such a poor condition place, you can humiliate
them by sending this picture to everyone in this school and tell them to forward to the other and so on and once the words gets around, Anna and Ruby will be too embarrass to lift up their chin and
they will have to endure this until they get out from this school!”

As Bell finished, a vivid picture formed in my mind of Anna and Ruby, crouching in a small corner of the school, their hands covered their face, crying and moaning and wailing to the
people who crowd around the pair of them, laughing and taunting at the pair. In one spiralling moment, it seemed to hit me: That would be the sweetest revenge I could ever get, to have Anna and
Ruby forced into a corner being taunted, being insulted for working in a miserable laundry shop.

“Yea, right… Well, let’s go on with the plan… That’s… yeah.”

As planned, we spread the picture of Anna and Ruby working in the shabby laundry shop to the whole school and remind and encourage people to taunt and insult Anna and Ruby. Soon, the
rumour about Anna’s and Ruby’s background spread around the school like a fire. I had started a rumour saying how Anna and Ruby had walked out on us and they had loaned over than a thousand of
dollars from me and now working in a shabby laundry shop which shows their differences from us being rich. Everyone started gossiping about Anna and Ruby. They became so infamous in school that no
one wanted to talk to them.

Anna and Ruby knew it was my doing and came to confront me one evening. They told me that I was over-doing it and told me to stop all my nonsense. But I did not care, I told them, no one
can stop me from doing what I want and this is what I want, revenge and embarrass them for what they said to me.

Anna raised a shaking hand and pointed at me, as though trying to threatened me. Her eyes were filled with anger beyond words and she was breathing heavily.

“Fine, this is what you want, isn’t it? To embarrass me and Ruby for what we said? Fine, then, go on. But let me warn you. You will have your retribution some day, you heard me? You will
have your retribution. Your fate doesn’t lie in your dirty filthy money. Your fate is in God’s hands.”

And with that, she left with Ruby. Anna and Ruby never talked to me from that day onwards. I didn’t realise the damage I had done to my future on that day. I had only
cared about what I desire. Soon, October came and we had our O Levels. I did it very badly because I hadn’t been studying since the day I wanted revenge. I couldn’t apply into any of the five
government-aided colleges unlike my friends so I had no choice but to buy my way in to private colleges.

Life was fair and simple to me in college. I fell in love with a millionaire’s son who happened to be in same field as me in the college. He was really sweet to me and I was certain he was
the one for me. Once we graduated, we decided to date for another six months and then we tied a knot.

My marriage life wasn’t simple after we had our first child. My first child was perfect yet he was born deaf and mute. My husband was disappointed at first but learnt to get over it after
he realised how special his little boy was. We tried for another child once my first child celebrates his two-year-old birthday. Nine months later, I gave birth to beautiful daughter. But to my
horror, the doctor discovered that my newborn was diagnosed cerebral palsy. I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard it. It was as though a shard of ice had just pierced through my heart. My husband
spent his whole evening convincing me that he will love our little girl just like our first son but I knew he was disappointed yet he didn’t show it. He tried taking work leave for a few months to
help me care for our second child. I knew he did it to convince me that he still loves me and our kids even though they aren’t exactly like any normal kids. I accepted the truth without any
complains and was ready to try for another child.

I was elated when I found out that I had twins. But then I was dealt with another blow. My twins, just like my daughter, suffered from cerebral palsy. It was as though the world had felt
on top of me. I cried and cried for days. My husband did not come to convince me anymore; he had finally shown his disappointment. I was left alone to care for my children every day and night. My
husband had decided not to lift a finger to help me at all and came back home late every midnight. I knew he was ashamed for having kids like this. But didn’t he understand how special his children
were? He only knew to stay shut in his study and finish up his report. He found them humiliating.

I admit it was hard caring for these kids but I love them to death. They mean everything in my world. But it hurts me inside when people don’t seem to realise how special they are. I had
brought my kids out occasionally to have MacDonald’s and was happy to see their little faces lit up with their innocent smiles. But people don’t seem to understand. They walked past us, staring
shamelessly at my kids, whisper among themselves. When my daughter or twins had their relapse, they began writhing involuntarily and started screaming. It drew so much stupid stares from the other
commuters and no one, not even a single person offered to help me.

My friends, Bell, Mel, Gin, Kris and Julie, I had not seen them for ages. Right after Bell told me she was going back Hong Kong to help her family business, I had not heard from the others
as well. I was in touch with Gin and Kris a few years right after I had my daughter but they immediately stopped contacting me when I told them about what happen to my children.

I thought I had known them so well that I believed that they will be there for me when I need them the most. But it looks like I was wrong about it. No one could help me, not even my
husband, whom I thought would love our kids for what they are.

One evening, I decided to take a breather right after I had put my kids to bed. I stopped and sat on the empty bench on a quiet little corner of the park. As I thought about my kids, tears
pool my eyes and I began sobbing uncontrollably. I tried to stop the tears from falling down but I couldn’t. I felt so weak and helpless. Why must this tragedy fall onto me? What had I done that my
children deserved this? What sins did I commit to deserve such punishment on my kids?

At the moment, someone gave a gentle squeeze on my shoulder. I looked up tearfully to see a very kind-face old man looking back at me, I hastily dried my tears.

“My child, are you ok?” he asked.

I nodded. My heart feels lighter to hear a concern voice.

“May I sit here?” the old man asked, pointing a seat beside me. I nodded, moving a little to the right so that the elderly could sit.

“Thank you.”

There was an awkward silence and then the old man spoke, “I don’t mean to be rude but is there something troubling you?”

I smiled. “Not really… Not troubled… just thinking about my kids…” I replied.

“Ah, I see. Well, all of us, parents, feels troubled about our kids now and then,” the old man said.

“I wish I can feel troubled about my kids now and then… but I can’t. I feel troubled almost every day,” I told him, my eyes now all watery.

The old man’s pair of eyes met mine and for the first time, I see concern in them.

“What’s wrong, my child?” said the old man gently, “What’s wrong?”

And I told him about my children, the eldest being deaf and mute and my daughter and twins suffered from cerebral palsy. I told him how miserable and upset I feel when people around me
stared shamelessly at my kids just because they were different and my husband had not bothered to take care of them and never spend any quality time with his kids. My eyes were swimming with tears
as I finished.

“Ah, well, you poor child,” he said gently, “Never in my life, I heard about this… I sympathise you… I’m so sorry…”

“You don’t have too… I’ve learnt to accept my destiny. No matter what happens, I will love my children… but I just can’t help thinking of I had ever done something wrong in my life that my
children had to be punished…” I said, sniffing.

The old man paused. Hesitantly, he said, “Don’t mind me asking this: Have you ever hurt or embarrass someone in your life many years ago using your hand and your mouth?”

“What do you mean?” I asked, surprised. Then I realised what he mean. “Do you mean… retribution?”

The old man nodded. “Have you?”

I sat down there, thinking hard, trying to remember every single mistake I had done, the sins I had done to others using my hands and mouth. Then I remembered the last few words she had
said to me before we officially fell out:

“Fine, this is what you want, isn’t it? To embarrass me and Ruby for what we said? Fine, then, go on. But let me warn you. You will have your retribution some day, you heard me? You
will have your retribution. Your fate doesn’t lie in your dirty filthy money. Your fate is in God’s hands.”

Panic ran down my spine like ice. I looked back at the old man wildly and said in a highly unusual voice, “I think… I think I might have done it… To Anna and Ruby. On that day, I wanted
revenge so badly that when my friend had shown me a photo of Anna and Ruby working in a laundry shop, I had used my phone to spread the pictures to my schoolmates… and… and then, to make matters
worse, I had spread rumours about them to embarrass them further… and I… I…”

“You had used your hands to send those photos and you had used your mouth to spread the rumours. Then I am afraid to say that your friend must have been hurt so badly that the retribution
falls onto your children,” said the old man.

My mind had gone blank and I couldn’t think anymore except Anna’s voice ringing continuously in my ears, “You will have your retribution.” And now my kids… they were atoning from my
sins…

But there was no anger and resentment in the old man’s eyes. “Apologies to them. To Anna and to Ruby,” the old man advised, “Life may be hard for you now but their forgiveness will make a
difference in your life.”

I tried to find Anna and Ruby for years but to no avail. I decided to go on the front page of the newspaper saying how sorry I was for humiliating them but I still had not gotten a word
from them. Till today, I still could not find the slightest trace of them. I know I must have hurt their feelings and I am sorry about what I had done to them. If time permit to change, I want to
go back to the past and treat them better. I will not make fun of them by trying to embarrass them just because they worked in a laundry shop. I would have helped them instead. I should have done
it. I don’t know whether I will ever find Anna and Ruby but all I wish to say that I am truly really sorry for what I had done. I am really, really sorry.